The red cap that used to sit so jauntily on his big brother's head almost swamps young Fintan Doherty.

But he wore it with pride yesterday, when it was time to say goodbye.

The seven-year-old was one of the youngest mourners at yesterday's service of remembrance for the fallen soldiers of 2nd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment.

Fintan Doherty, says goodbye to his older brother Private Jeff Doherty during the memorial service

His older brother, Private Jeff Doherty, was killed in an ambush by Taliban gunmen in Afghanistan in June, two days after his 20th birthday.

Private Doherty, who was on his first operational tour, was one of five soldiers from 2 Para to die within seven days.

The death rate for the battalion during the six-month tour was greater than for any Army unit in Afghanistan or in Iraq.

Fifteen of them gave their lives - nine members of the battalion and six who had been attached to it.

In total almost one in three of the 160 soldiers manning Forward Operating Base Gibraltar in Helmand was killed or wounded - the same rate as for the British who fought in the battlefields of the First World War.

For the fallen: Members of the 2nd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment in Colchester for the remembrance service

At yesterday's service in the garrison town of Colchester, Essex, around 600 members of 2 Para marched towards St Peter's Church.

On the way, they were applauded by hundreds of members of the public and family and friends.

Isobel Thorp, nine, who travelled from Newport, South Wales, with her family to watch her father, Sergeant Major Martin Thorp, summed up the mood.

'I'm very proud of them marching for the other soldiers but I'm glad he's with us and safe,' she said.

During the service, commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Joe O'Sullivan said: 'This was the very hardest end of soldiering which the battalion had not seen for 26 years [since the Falklands], with little margin for error and no place for the faint-hearted.

'People outside looking in have been amazed by the battalion's resilience, its ability to carry on and on, and its humour that defied the very worst of days.'

The service was led by battalion padre the Reverend Alan Steele, who told the troops: 'May I suggest that the time of testing is now done and that here, today, is the time for tears.'

Respect: Private Jeff Doherty, 20, was killed on duty in Afghanistan

The soldiers' duties have included dangerous foot-patrols from their forward operating bases, supporting air assaults on Taliban strongholds and overseeing the safe delivery of a huge turbine to the Kajaki dam to help restore power to the region.

In addition to losses from enemy bullets and bombs, nine paras were injured in a friendly fire incident, including three seriously, when an Apache helicopter was called in to help soldiers involved in close-quarters combat.

Lance Corporal Alan Farmer, 32, from Stevenage, Hertfordshire, lost three friends to a suicide bomber.

He said: 'It's hard to take such big losses, but you have got to carry on. Now we are home it is time to remember them properly.'

Sergeant Andy Turnbull, whose platoon suffered one loss and several injuries, was overwhelmed by the turn out.

'I've been in the army 13 years and I've done two tours of Iraq, Macedonia and five tours of Northern Ireland and it's the only time I've come back and people have lined the street,' he said.

'It's a very strange feeling but very comforting that people feel that way, especially after the tour we've had.'

Isobel Thorp (right) travelled from Newport with her brother Charlie and mother Sharon to watch her father Sergeant Major Martin Thorp in the parade

He added that each loss suffered by 2 Para had 'helped steel resolve' in Afghanistan.

'The attitude was "You keep sending them and we'll keep killing them",' he said.Civil servant Brian Wingate, 34, from Chelmsford, was among the members of public outside St Peter's yesterday.

'I've never been to a remembrance parade before but I heard what they had been through and just felt I had to pay my respects,' he said.

'What all of them have done for their country is amazing. Many of them have paid the ultimate sacrifice, so I thought I should make a small one myself and be here.'

In action: Members of the Parachute Regiment prepare a defensive position just outside Basra, southern Iraq, earlier this year

Bleak: Soldiers from the regiment stationed in Forward Operating Base Gibraltar had a one in three chance of being killed or wounded, the same casualty rate as soldiers in the First World War like these pictured